1. Field of the Invention
The subject matter of the present disclosure relates to a stitchwork status checking program, a stitchwork status checking apparatus, and a stitchwork status checking method which check the stitchwork status of a stitchwork pattern selected and stitched by a sewing machine. Moreover, the subject matter of the present disclosure also relates to a stitchwork status checking system including the stitchwork status checking apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, sewing machines that are capable of stitching have pattern data for stitchwork provided thereto, and perform stitching based on such pattern data. When a pattern is constituted by multiple threads, a user changes the thread as needed in accordance with such a pattern.
When a sewing machine starts stitching, the stitching is automatically performed without any operation by the user until the thread is changed next. When, for example, the pattern to be stitched is large, it takes over 30 minutes until the thread is changed next. Hence, the user estimates a time at which the sewing machine stops next, and returns to the sewing machine at this time.
Conversely, when the thread breaks during the stitching, the stitching is once terminated. When the user is not aware of the termination of the stitching, the sewing machine is left with the stitching being uncompleted. When the leaving time of the sewing machine as it is long, an extra time becomes necessary until the completion of the stitching. Accordingly, it is necessary for the user to return to the sewing machine several times, and to check that the stitching is being performed normally.
Checking of the stitchwork status by the sewing machine can be made if the status of the sewing machine is monitorable even if the user is apart from the sewing machine. Hence, JP H05-64694 A discloses a method of disposing a small CCD camera near a sewing machine, and of checking the video of how the sewing machine is performing stitching through a monitor connected in a wired manner.
When, however, the sewing machine and the monitor are connected in a wired manner, the movable range of the user is limited. Accordingly, instead of a wire connection, a wireless communication between the sewing machine and a portable information terminal is applicable. In this case, however, when the wireless communication through a normal data communication is applied, if the communication is once lost, an error is detected, and the connection is canceled. In this case, it is necessary for the user to manually establish a communication again.
In addition, when a video of stitching is transmitted to a personal computer or a portable information terminal via the wireless communication, the data quantity of such a video becomes remarkably large. Hence, a large load is applied to the hardware resources of the sewing machine, and thus it is necessary to provide an additional CPU or the like in order to process the video data.
Still further, transmission of the video data often occupies the wireless communication line, which may negatively affect other wireless communications. Moreover, when the portable information terminal becomes apart from the sewing machine and the communication status becomes poor, the video becomes fuzzy, and the motion image is terminated. When the communication status is recovered, the video is still fuzzy, and thus the visibility is poor.
The present disclosure has been proposed in order to address the above-explained conventional technical problems, and it is an objective of the present disclosure to provide a stitchwork status checking system, a stitchwork status checking apparatus, a stitchwork status checking method, and a stitchwork status checking program which enable a real-time monitoring of the progress situation of a stitching by a sewing machine on a screen of the stitchwork status checking apparatus while letting the stitching sewing machine and the stitchwork status checking apparatus to be connected with each other via a wireless network.